The Rhode Island Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the non-profit Rhode Island Bar Association, is seeking applications for its Thomas F. Black Jr. Memorial Scholarship. The foundation intends to award two scholarships of $20,000 each to Rhode Island residents who enroll as first-year students in an American Bar Association accredited law school for the academic year beginning September 2013.

The scholarship is for the first year of law school only and non-renewable. Each scholarship award is made on the basis of demonstrated financial need, superior academic performance, community and public service and demonstrated contacts with and commitment to the state of Rhode Island.

The Scholarship Committee seeks applications from candidates without regard to race, color, religion, country of ancestral origin, handicap, age, sex, or sexual orientation. Since 1984, this fund has awarded 50 scholarships to promising law students from Rhode Island. The scholarship program receives substantial funding from the Horace A. Kimball and S. Ella Kimball Foundation, and the Champlin Foundations in honor of the late Thomas F. Black Jr., who was known for his impressive ability as a lawyer and banker, his deeply rooted legal scholarship, and his notable participation in civic and charitable causes.